The Financial Times has the latest in the ongoing saga of Google in China:
Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking.
In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also yesterday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving.
The signs that Google was on the brink of closing Google.cn, its local search service in China, came two months after it promised to stop bowing to censorship there. But while a decision could be made very soon, the company is likely to take some time to follow through with the plan as it seeks an orderly closure and takes steps to protect local employees from retaliation by the authorities, the person familiar with its position said.
The status of talks between Google and the Chinese government has been unclear following confusing and contradictory statements from both sides. Then, earlier this week, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said he thought the stand-off with the Chinese government over Internet censorship and cyber attacks would be resolved “soon” but that the company was still committed to ending censorship of its Chinese search engine. His remarks launched speculation that Google was preparing to leave the China market, which a Google spokesperson has since denied. Now, Li Yizhong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, has warned Google against opening Google.cn, the New York Times reports:
Speaking on the sidelines of the National People’s Congress, China’s quasilegislative session, Mr. Li said that he hoped ... « Back to Article

The saga plays on, like the ” days of our lives “. Googles recently threatened to pull out its core business completely out of China was an irresponsible act. It was an act of impulse without merit.
Google, the world renowned search engine, has lost its competitiveness in Chinese landscaping. While Google is ready to bail out entirely from Chinese soil, its arch rival Baidu is eager to pick up all its reminding pieces. It is a chapter of sad story for many Netizens in China. Nobody in China would like to see a total monopolization of one company especially in the all important field of high tech . With the domination of one search engine, the users would suffer from less innovations, limited choices and higher prices.
Contrary to Google claims that its resignation from China were for reasons of cyber terrorism and government restrictions. Google’s decisions to disenfranchisement are in fact from an unsound business directive on an impulsive attitudes from the management teams. Google business in China is in a stalemate. Its business model never took off. It stems from a poor management teams locally, its off timings and its failed to seize opportunities. The dragging on intellectual properties case with Chinese writers add another fuse to its surrender from China. Google is spoiled by its success in US and many parts of the world. The idea of being a distant number two would indeed make Google very comfortable which so used to be the champion of all champs. The recent cyber attacks incident gave Google an excuse to bail out and save ‘ faces ‘ of being defeated. To the misinformed western world, they praised Google as the forerunner company for ‘ Democracy ‘ whom it would never give in to a totalitarian government like China. Once again, they use the pretext to demoralize China and belittle China on its path to super power.
China has its own set of rule of laws. You could ridiculous of its many contents of Chinese laws all you worth. But so far, China is doing a great job in keeping peace with every nation of the world and successfully bringing in a better life for billions of her own people. The Google scenario means nobody will come out a winner, not China, not the Chinese people and definitely not to the advantage of Google’s business.